A New York lawyer spends six months researching street vendors and the informal economy on a Fulbright grant in Lagos, Nigeria.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Can you hear me now?

As this wonderful article explains, cell phones are a big deal in Africa, where landline connections are unreliable or non-existent. Nigeria is no exception. A lot of people carry two or three cell phones, with different carriers, since coverage on any one can be spotty. What interests me the most is how many people are self-employed in the cell phone business. Everywhere you look, there are vendors selling prepaid phone minutes. And there are other variations. This woman, Bissi, acts as a reseller by buying minutes in bulk and then reselling them to customers at a slightly cheaper rate than they would get using their own phones (15 naira a minute, or about 10 cents, instead of 20 naira). That red phone on her table, right next to those famous meat rolls, is a cell phone she purchased from the company.

And here is Akim, who I met today on Lagos Island. He runs a charging station for cell phone batteries. Why would you need to use Akim's charging station? Because the power grid only works here, in my experience, about 10% of the time. Unless you have a generator, or know someone like Akim, you are out of luck.

Incidentally, I now have a Nigerian cell phone, which you may be able to reach by dialing 234 (country code) 070-629-04014.

6 comments:

Hi Alexis. I'm happy you are reading! The work is going well, although I am definitely on a different, slower pace than in NYC. You can only spend so much time every day in the hot sun talking to vendors, and when night comes, things get quiet and dark. But yes, I'm happy and I'm definitely feeling a sense of personal growth.

Sean - I will try you on your cell at some point! Hope you are well. I have to say, your pictures are awesome - they are photo journalist quality, in my opinion - maybe that's due to the context/your blog, though just wanted to compliment you on your blog and your pictures! Merv and I finished the second leg of the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix last Sunday. I have to say due to my lack of training, it was the hardest race I've run so far. Good lesson. Take care.

Thanks, Jason. You know, one of the funny things about doing a blog is that you expect your friends to start keeping blogs, too. So I will be looking forward to reading your 2009 NYC Marathon Training blog!

Hey Sean. Your blog looks great. Also, I experienced the phone situation while in Zambia. I had no idea how difficult it was to reach out by phone, and how ubiquitous cell phone usage is because of a lack of land line infrastructure. The family I stayed with made great use of skype, actually.

Hey Saran -- so happy you are reading! That is funny about skype -- I thought it would be such a life-saver for me, but the internet connection here is too slow to skype without major frustration. And just as I am reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman! It's only flat if you have a good internet connection! Please keep commenting.